Social Movements: Definition, Ideologies, And Approaches

Marxism

Write an essay on Social movements.

Social movements are purposeful movements which are organized and directed towards bringing about a drastic social change. The social change which is brought thereby is essentially brought to serve some kind of desirable change in the society. Although the economic sphere and the social sphere are deemed as two different entities, they are explained to be self-complementary in the theories of three great sociologists- Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emily Durkheim. On the one hand, Marx believed that economy I the very base of a society that is the ultimate determinant of societal superstructure. On the other hand, to weber, the society is nothing but an extension of the society, while to Durkheim, economy is one social institution that the society is composed of (Marshall et al. 2013 p 2)

Marx believed that each society has a ruling class and that particular section determines the ideology of that particular society. In collaboration with Engels, Marx wrote The German ideology, where the two authors reinforced the definition of ideology, as not something that is inherently right, but something that serves the purpose of a the dominant section of the society. According to Marx, ideology, in any society acts as a superstructure, where the socio-economic condition of the prevalent era is but only a base. According to Marx, the cultural production of the era will always comply with the thought pattern of the ruling class (Anderson 2016 p 15). Furthermore, Marx pointed out that the era of Feudalism was not an extinct concept in the prevalent era. The capitalist society of the eighteenth Century is an extension of the feudal form of society. While the feudal sections are no longer present, the society of the time, is clearly divided into two sections- the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. While the former class, are the owners of the means of production, belonging to the group of traditional exploiters, the latter are the workers, who are exploited, in the process of offering their labor. Marx upholds that the proletariats are educated with the false ideology, something that gets reflected in the literature, philosophy or the legal system of the prevalent era. As Herbert Mercuse has also affirmed that the proletariats will be usually educated in terms of their thought process and opinion formation, in accordance with the capitalist theory. As such, even if the exploited section is trying to raise their voice, their views will be to a great extent conforming to the ideology and the principles of the exploiter section of the society (McMurthry 2015 p 32). Whether it is a matter of a religious institution, or an educational institution, the principal of the dominant class of the society will be found to possess a voice, and rigid control. Marx believes that owing to this control over the ideology of the state, the stability of the ruling party is never brought into question. However, once the oppressed section starts understanding the process of exploitation they have undergone for ages, they start questioning the ideology of the ruling class; from this, emerges the revolutionary ideas of the proletariats which directly pose a challenge and threat to the  activities, and age-old concepts of the bourgeois class of people (Parekh 2014 p 110).
 
To the bourgeois section, labor is just another commodity, it is another means of production, and hence the exploitation can be carried out on the laborers, by increasing their working hours, reducing their wages, and offering them low quality working condition . However, as less opportunity of education is offered to the exploited section of the society, in very much consonance with the ideology of the ruling class to stop them from revolt, they cannot take up the necessary step. But gradually, with the formation of rad unions, materialization of a revolutionary idea, they aspire and strive to emancipate themselves from a rigidly controlled society of the capitalists. In the Communist Manifest, Marx pointed out that the motto of the capitalist will never be a classless society, but to widen the gap of  class based distinction in the society. Hence, both Marx and Engels, pointed out that the capitalists will try their besat to reduce the wages payable to the laborers, and the latter should keep on striving to achieve the opposite (Alexander et al. 2014 p 90). The revolutionary ideals of the exploited class lead to the development of the trade unions, which work as an outlet for the complaints and grievances of the weaker proletariats. In reality, the bigger movements of the Great Depression had long-lasting effect, in recognizing the importance of the trade unions. At this time, the corporate class of people, recognized the legal right of the trade unions, and also accepted the bargaining power of the laborers.  Not only so, in the words of Marx, even mass media itself is a body which reflects the ideology of the capitalist class, as it is itself one of the means of production of the ruling class. Thus, whatever information and facts are revealed through media it will necessarily engender the ideology and the worldview of the ruling class of the society. As such, in a patriarchal society, anything that is shown on the television will essentially reflect the rightful authority of the male in the household, or it will justify the power exercised by the male member of the family. The media will thus voice so much of the views and opinions of the patriarchal society, which the ideology of the male dominating class, will appear to be the most normal, and socially accepted idea for the society. At the same time, the inhabitants of the society, who are acquainted and socialized into believing the ideology of the ruling class, they will never be easily able to question the dominance and the precedence of the ruling class. Thus, in a patriarchal society, one will not easily come across a television show, which will exhibit the free spirit, or the uninhibited desires of a woman, as it might lead to feminist movement that would challenge and interrogate the whole system of patriarchy (Moueffe 2014 p 67). Hence, anything that would be opposing or contradicting the vantage point of the patriarchal society (the ruling class) will be censored. It is through this process of stifling the freedom of expression of mass thought, that the ruling class imposes a rigid control on the autonomy of the media. While this is called the materialist stance, it stands in opposition to the ideological stance. The materialist stance reflects the dominant ideology of the ruling class, while the ideological stance is that which reflects the ideology of the consciousness (Mommsen et al. 2013 p 41). Marx believes that the ruling class ideology, will only be allowed to be reflected as the most natural and rightful thing, and this helps in the creation of ideology in such a way, that any sort of contradictory viewpoint is regarded as an obnoxious idea. For instance, despite the presence of the trade unions, there was a huge lack of unity and co-operation among the workers, necessary to combat the exploiter class of the society. This was simply the result of the industrialization process, that was introduced by the capitalist society, which led to the less demand for laborers because of greater reliance on machinery. Because of this system, there was greater competition among the workers, and resultantly the competition prevailed, even when an unified force was needed for forming the trade unions. Thus, the whole system is locked and imprisoned by the ruling ideology of the state (Larrain et al. 2013 p 34).
Weber:
 Weber’s view of social change, stood in direct opposition to Marx’s idea. As opposed to Marx’s point of view, that social change occurs in a society only after there is a glaring instance of class difference leading to class struggle, Weber believed that social change can come either through a particular purpose or by an accident. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber points out that the emergence of capitalism in northern part of  Europe occurred due to the Protestant, especially the Calvinist ethics, which encouraged in a compelling way, the masses to engage in materialistic activities, so that greater progress, in terms of financial gains could be witnessed. The point that Weber emphasized, was that in no way, did the Protestant followers, through their viewpoint, tried to express any greed or lust underlying such materialistic motive. Rather, they explained their ideology from a very morally justified point of view (Giddens 2013 p 89). Weber even argues by quoting Benjamin Franklin, whose speech for the masses, reinforces the necessity of earning more money, not for the purpose of mere wealth accumulation, but as a gesture of striving and toiling for future security. The Reformation, in the words of Weber, suggests that hard work, which is dedicated for getting greater wealth and prosperity, is an act of dedicating life to God. Weber further states, that usually religiosity implies denial and withdrawal from any materialistic or worldly affair of the world. But as opposed to this, Protestantism inspired the people from the pre capitalist era to dedicate their lives for greater financial rewards, and however, this view was not without the support of an ideological base. Rather, these were produced owing to already existing spiritual theories and doctrines, which highlight the importance of hard work and strong dedication to achieve materialistic gains as a means to achieve the higher goal in life. Weber further pointed out that during the Reformation period, the Roman Catholic Church was assuring salvation to the people who submitted unquestionably to their authority (Weber 2013 p 45). However, such assurance was totally missing in the Protestant period, and this created a huge lack of self-confidence among the people, as they started believing that some people are pre-destined to attain salvation, while others were not. In addition to this, was Calvin’s theory of double destination, which claimed that some people were pre-destined to attain salvation, while others were not. Thus, as there was a great absence of religious assurance regarding salvation, the people started finding out their own means of the same. Thus, apart from clerical service in the church, any vocation, that was associated with hard work and continuous efforts started getting associated with a way to attain God’s grace. Webber further argued that beside the glorification of hard work, the Protestantism resented the idea of extravagance, as it was a sin, and it also discarded the value of helping a beggar, as it believed in hard work and not in beggary. As a   result, there was a huge accumulation of wealth, which led to the creation of Nascent Capitalism (Alexander et al. 2014 p 92).
Durkheim:
    Durkheim spoke of the importance of social integration in the formation of a society. According to him, men are different from beasts; on one major point- their insatiable lust for more. The desires of men cannot be satisfied, the more the desires are met, the more men want. Thus, there arises a need for social regulation, which will exert a rigid control on the inordinate desires of mankind. But when the social regulations are no longer at work, it leads to the destruction of the creation of a state, known as anomaly, which will result in the disruption of order and law, in an otherwise socially regulated world (Durkheim et al. 2014 p 72). As opposed to Marx, Durkheim proposed a theory of Functionalism, which advocated that a sense of cohesion defines a society, rather than a sense of conflict. In his The Division of Labor in Society, he says, that ordinarily human beings are egoistical beings, thinking about and prioritizing their selfish motives and needs; however, a society regulates such selfish tendencies of human mind, by inculcating in the human minds the importance of certain values, norms and ideals, which are ideologically deemed to be correct (Durkheim et al. 2013 p 50).   This process of educating a child, since his birth, about the importance of certain social values, creates a sense of collective consciousness, which ultimately creates a sense of unity, and integration in the society (Alexander et al. 2014 p 74). Even, Durkheim talks of the idea of division of labor, like Marx. However, unlike Marx, to Durkheim, division of labor does not lead to the class conflict, ultimately resulting in the disintegration of the social system. On the other hand, to Durkheim, division of labor implies, a process where most of the people are not doing the same work, and following their own specialized areas (Swartz et al. 2012 p 93). This , in no way, creates clash or conflict, rather it helps in creating a strong sense of solidarity, borne out of a feeling of inter-dependence on each other. According to Durkheim, a human being is full of inordinate desires and selfish motives, and he can become a human in true sense only through the incorporation of the social control upon him. But Durkheim notes that in recent times, the modern society, as opposed to the ancient one, is gradually moving towards individualism. This individualistic trait is pushing them to a feeling of prolonged emptiness and frustration resulting in anomaly and higher suicide rates. So, he talks of the importance of greater social integration required for the modern societies (Turner et al. 2016 p 11).
Comparative Study of Marx, Weber and Durkheim :
    Marx points out that there is an inherent sense of conflict in the society, arising from the class-distinction. According to him, the state is run by a false ideology, representing the needs of the ruling class, and the exploited class of the society, are absorbed and trapped in such an ideological perspective for ages (Halewood et al. 2014 p 171). On the other hand, Durkheim believes that this ideology reflects the moral purpose of the society, that through an ideological control, the society restricts the possibility of selfish and immoral acts. Again, Weber believes, unlike Marx’s perspective, men were never imprisoned by a system of capitalism, but they themselves went to achieve the same, on their own (Da silva et al. 2015 p 159-179).
In the present day world, the theories of the classical theorists of Sociology are still prevalent. Marx believed in the theory of socialism, where everyone would be granted equal opportunities, and in today’s world, the NGOs are organized bodies which try to reach out to the needy ones as well, trying to create minimum balance in opportunity level. Similarly, as Durkheim talks of the importance of social cohesion, in present days, as sociologists point out, the gift exchange in Christmas or New Year’s Eve, reflects the importance attached to the concept of social solidarity (Dobbin et al. 2014 p 12)).

Reference List:

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